Strip Away That Pride
by Bestbuds55
Summary: Alice is alone in the narrows of gothem, until she isn't anymore. The Joker doesn't understand that people aren't play things, but it doesn't seem to matter to either of them. It's a weird sort of relationship.
1. Alice 1

**Author's note: The closer it gets to Christmas, the more excited I get! Hard not to totally love this season though. The one thing is that since I just moved out this year, so I don't have any decorations yet. Going home on the 19****th**** of December, and staying for a couple of weeks. It'll be nice to be back home for more than a single day. On another note, this is the final chapter! Probably won't have anything going up while I'm home, will be way to busy during the holidays. Hope you enjoyed the story and hope you leave review on your thoughts!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself. First batman story ever! Been obsessed with reading stories containing the joker this week. Wanted to try writing one of my own, so I hope you like it.**

Alice turned to look behind her again; she had been walking home and had felt someone following her for the last 10 minutes. It wasn't uncommon; she lived in the narrows of Gotham after all, but what bothered her is that when she turned she saw no one. Usually when a thug was stalking someone, she would turn, they would be there and then she would run. She was fast and had been living here since she was 16, in the last three years she had learned a lot. Like run fast and not get caught or if you get caught, don't struggle otherwise you'll have a hospital bill to deal with on top of everything else.

Today was different then all those times, usually she had people hooting and hollering at her as she walked, makeup and tight shirt still on as she walked home from the strip club. She had been working there since she had left the orphanage at 16, and had wondered into the bad part of town, looking for wok doing whatever. The boss there had said that if she had the body for it (which she did) and didn't a fuck of the older men leering at her, then he didn't give a fuck about her age. She supposed she should be really grateful; she probably would have resorted to selling herself not long after that, she had been out on the street for a week without food or shelter before that. One of the nicer ladies at the club had let her stay with her and Alice had stayed there since then, after a few weeks starting to pay half the rent. The older lady had been killed by a mob member after refusing to sleep with him and Alice ended up just keeping the apartment.

A hand shot out from behind her and grabbed around her middle at the same time another hand covered her mouth. There was two men she noted as they drug her backwards. She held back he scream that came forward in her throat, if she struggled they would only hurt her more. That didn't stop a tear running down her cheek when they through her backwards and her head smashed into a wall. Her sight was slightly fuzzy after that, and she couldn't help but wish that they had just knocked her out, but now she just felt like throwing up on top of the horrors she was about to have to go to. She swallowed harshly to keep it down; she had a feeling if she accidently threw up on one of them, they would gut her.

Her shirt was ripped open and hands roamed over her now exposed chest. This had happened many times before, these streets were not safe in the least and sometimes men even recognized her from the club and went after their own personal fantasy. She was powerless against them. Her head chanted out to her, that she was strong and she would get through this just like those other times. Still, she was so tired of being touched it was even painful to think about these days.

The men withdrew their hands to undue their pants, when knives flew out of nowhere and planted themselves through the back of the men's heads. Alice didn't scream, she didn't do anything at all, she just watched as a man came out of the shadows. He was frowning even though the makeup on his face was drawn up into a smile, he just stared at her and she just stared back.

A few minutes of silence, and the man grinned at her without warning. Her heart beat a little bit faster as she looked at his fuzzy image. Everything was blacking out around her, but he was wearing the joker's makeup, and while she really didn't ever have a TV or was up on the news; she heard men at the club explain him and how scary it was to have him out on the street. She heard he liked to blow things up, and cut people, but hadn't really come face to face with an act of his yet.

He walked towards her taking in her whole situation before resting his rough palm against her cheek, her eyes were dropping and she had just accepted if he wanted to kill her now, it would be doing her a favor; she wouldn't have to pull herself up off the wall and manage to walk home with the injured head and ripped to shreds shirt. "Ah, dolly, ya lookin a little bit broken. Need so-ome help?" She could hear him smacking his lips together, though she couldn't focus her eyes enough to tell if he actually had the scars the said he did.

Alice pushed his hand away and did her best to lean away from him, he grunted unhappily but then inched back when she threw up. She slide down the wall trying to inch away from the spot of her sick, ignoring the man in front of her, she had already decided she was done. "Da-olly, don't ig-nore me." He giggled out and she found herself looking up at his face and just smiling. This was it, she was done, nothing more in this world could hold her attention, this was the last page of her torn up and burnt book.

In the moment before she passed out, she looked up at him and smiled deeper. "I 'ike your eyes." Joker lost his smile as she slumped against the wall and closed her eyes.

He stood there for several moments more and just stared at her, and people called him crazy. This girl didn't bother to scream when two obvious rapists drug her into an alley, or even when he killed them. Then he had made himself know and she had had the nerve to just push him off, and then compliment his eyes. What a strange person, he didn't think he would ever understand women. How interesting, this could be fun. He pulled out a phone and called in his boys for a ride. This dolly was going to come with him to; she was fun to pay with again. Dolly's were apparently more fun than he had thoughts they were, and he wanted to keep her around to play with again. He looked down at her ripped shirt and noted that playing dress up was a thing that was going to happen as well, girl looked frozen. Not that he cared or anything, it's just that she would look better in his purple and green colors. This was going to be fun.


	2. Alice 2

**Author's Note: Well Christmas vacation was certainly a break that needed very much am now sad to see it over so quickly. Back to getting up early and walking in a snow storm to get to class in time! Hope you enjoy the second chapter, because I haven't wrote anything in like a month. Might take me awhile to get back into it. Anyone else having trouble with this site by the way? My account seems to be glitching weirdly. Anyway, don't let me bore you; though feel free to drop me a review if you have the time!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Joker or anything else in the Dark Knight fandom. Though Alice is my character.**

Alice woke up on a hard bed, one that was definitely not her own. Not that she had expected to wake up in her own; it was more like she had expected to wake up in some cold alley where those thugs had left her. It had happened before, she had woken up bloody, broken and sore and then managed to find her way to her feet and walk to her home. Last time she had taken two days off work, (all she could possibly afford with seemly cutting her meals that week down to nothing) and cried for those two days straight.

This time someone had saved her though, and not just any someone, she had been able to recognize her savoir as the one and only Joker. As soon as she had seen him through her blurry eyes, she hadn't expected to survive this encounter. No one survived the Joker and she hadn't exactly expected to be an exception. Not to mention she had still managed to lose consciousness and it had already been really cold out, she could have easily frozen to death outside if the joker wasn't planning on violently murdering her.

She really hadn't planned on waking up again, the thought had run through her head even as she had been grabbed off the street, this was it. She was done with this, done with the pain from being hit all the time, done with trying to fight off Goosebumps as men openly leered at her while she took off clothes slowly because she really just wanted nothing more than to keep them on. She was done the moment she had been grabbed; she didn't want to have to fail at putting herself together again when large men decided she would be a fun play thing. Done with this life, done with all this shit, just done. Maybe that's why she really hadn't fought back in the first place, earlier she had thought it because she didn't want to be hurt more than necessary, but now she considered it to be because she actually wanted them to kill her and stopped fighting back because she was just waiting for it.

Then the door opened up to knock Alice out of her thoughts and in danced the Joker, or she thought he was the Joker anyway. The man didn't have the Joker makeup on and had blond instead green hair, still wet and somewhat straight. He had the scars as she had heard them explained though, but she had heard rumors that he cut the same scars into most of his Hench men, to make them feel his pain. He was known for killing his own people anyway.

She felt herself tremble under his gaze as their eyes met, she was afraid that this man really was the Joker. She was afraid he would cut her into pieces, not even just murder her, but leave her alone in pieces and alive. Death was something that she had long stopped being scared of, she was more afraid of being left injured harshly and bleeding out, unable to move for days.

The man only smiled at her, though it wasn't really that much of a change on his face, considering he had somewhat of a permanent smile going on. He stepped forward towards her and away from the door, she noted both that he left the door open and that he wasn't wearing shoes. He was really quiet and barely made a noise while moving; it was as though he thought he could sneak up on her even though she was staring directly at him. She could run, stamp hard on his foot and run out that door, but she didn't know where she was and still felt if she moved she would only succeed in falling over. Plus there was the heavy thought of, what if this actually was the Joker?

"It's good to see you awake Deary, you were asleep for days and we were starting to think that maybe ya weren't going to wake up." He voice seemed to bounce merrily as he spoke. The thought ran through her head that the Joker had called her Dolly when they met and that this man couldn't be him because he would stick to that.

"I wasn't really expecting to wake up either. And certainly not in such a comfortable room, I thought it would be in a cold alley, half covered in snow." She spoke honestly, for she really didn't have anything to hide. Though the man lost his smile as she found herself grinning at him. So what if she hadn't said the most cheery thing, it was the truth and she liked telling people the truth? That had got her in a lot of trouble before and if he wanted to kill her for it, so be it. She was ready for it.

He simply stepped forward once more so that he stood by her bed side and reached over to carefully run two fingers down his face. She just watched him with open eyes, no shock shook through her, no terrified twitch; to be honest she was quite use to men touching when they weren't suppose to. That came with being a stripper in the most crime run slum of the most crime run city of the world. You grew strong, twisted and dark with survival in places like this. "Ya sure don't think much of your own life Deary. Ya got a name that I can write on that headstone?" The man murmured, his hand still rubbing itself lightly against her face.

She felt herself leaning into his hand as much as she could, it hurt greatly to move but this wasn't really much. "You can call me Alice if you want, but if it's all the same I would rather you didn't bother with the head stone. Expensive and pointless, just throw my body wherever you see fit. If you people have dog's perhaps you could just feed me to them, they probably don't get fed another in a place like this anyway."

The man was straight out frowning now, like he truly didn't agree with how little she thought of herself. She just watched him pull his hand back and violently shake his head; he didn't seem to be happy at all anymore. She kind of just wanted to see him smile again, but that thought was pushed far back in her mind. It didn't really matter anyway. "Call me Jack. And don't give up yet Deary, I think you'll see things are going to be looking up for you. Now, I think you should come to the kitchen and get something to eat. I ah, made soup for you yesterday."

Alice didn't really think her body would let her move, but eating something sounded great to her. She was really happy to hear that this man was not the Joker, but rather Jack. It still made her wonder why she was here though; this place was obviously a house. Was it the Jokers house, or did he just leave her under henchmen eye and order Jack to take care of her? So many questions ran through her mind.

Sliding carefully to the edge of the bed, she noted just how much it hurt to move. Another few moment with those men that had grabbed her and she would have been dead. Did she even really care? Placing her feet of the ground, she tried to stand up and only managed to gasp when she found up that her feet just weren't going to work and started to plummet to the ground. Strong arms caught her though, and she couldn't tell if she wanted to push them away or pull him closer. It was weird just how safe Jack made her feel.


	3. Alice 3

**Author's Note: It won't be long now till my exams and between you and me; I'd would simply rather that they didn't happen at all. I like this story more and more as I write it! Though I'm not really ready for it to end, I just had a great idea to do, so sorry ahead of time for the sad ending. I'm a big fan of the Joker and hope I'm doing him justice in this story. (Probably not at all, but really what can you do.) Feel free to review for me, and maybe our favorite clown man won't end you. There will be one more chapter and it'll be the Jokers prospective.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Dark Knight and everything that falls into the category. All I own is the story itself and my OC.**

Jack had just caught her in his arms and she had let out an embarrassing squeak. Alice found herself quite embarrassed, she just hadn't expected for her feet to give out from under her. Still, Jack was now staring at her with wide eyes as she hissed in pain, it hurt too much to be half standing up. She just wanted to lie down; the ground would be fine if he didn't want to help her back on the bed. She wanted to curl up and die; it would be easier then living in all this pain. She was sure that if she had had anything in her stomach, she would have thrown up. Then she was up off the ground and back on the bed, with those arms of Jack's run themselves down her body, most likely checking for injury. If she hadn't been red in the face before, she certainly was now.

"Wha-ah, what's the matter Deary?" Jack asked in a tone that could have almost been concern. She didn't really want to even bother with an answer as her sight began to blur once more. The pain was spinning her world around and she just wanted off. She felt bile rise even though her stomach was empty, and could hear loud ringing in her ears, even though there wasn't any noise. She let out a snort that sounded more like a hiss by the time it came out, "Maybe it's my turn to stop anyway. Looks like you wasted your time; should have just left me in that alley." She managed to groan out.

He was frowning again, she could tell even with all the spinning happening and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why he cared at all. Then again, it wasn't hard to say that the Joker had told him to watch her and then if she died he would be punished. That would be horrible, for him anyway, she would already be dead so there wouldn't be anything the Joker could do to her. She flinched slightly when Jack's hand returned to caressing her face, as if he was trying to sooth the pain away and just had no idea how to go about it. Like he had never had to take care of another person in his entire life before, and Alice couldn't help but wonder what he did when he got those scars and he just sat there not sure what to do about it, cold, alone, hurt. It made her feel sorry for him, so she really hoped that it hadn't been like that, that he had someone there to help him; someone who cared.

She closed her eyes as starting to fade out, already decided that if she was going to go, it would be her choice; when she felt a sharp sudden poke to her left arm. She snapped her eyes back open, but things were blurry and fuzzy and nothing would stay still. It was cold and pressing into her skin and even with how much pain she was in, she tried to squirm away. A heavy weight held her down and the sharp feeling in her arm wouldn't go away, though the pain in other part of her body was starting to fade. The weight on top of her wouldn't leave though, and she calmed down enough to recognize that Jack was trying to hold her down. He was heavy and it was hard to breathe underneath of his weight.

Just as quick as it has happened, Jack was back up and off of her. The heavy feeling didn't leave her body though; it stayed and only heightened as seconds ticked by. The thought ran through her mind that he had just drugged her; that sharp pain had definitely been a needle, but she couldn't really bring herself to care. She was dead anyway, and there was nothing he could do to her now that would matter and besides, he would already have to get creative to do some new horror to her. She turned her head over at him, body now limp and hard to move. She could barely see through her hazy eyes, but she could see Jack outline and in a profound moment of clarity, she noticed that his outline was the same as the Joker's from before.

He stroked his hand down her face again and she couldn't help but wonder if that was going to be a thing. She didn't really mind it all that much, though it seemed to be a bit creepier now that she was convinced that he was the Joker. She could hold back the tired grin she gave him, and wished she could tell if he smiled back. Thing were just too blurry though, and her eye lids were starting to droop and it was getting harder and harder to stay awake. She was beginning to wonder whether she was going to wake up again after this, what he had given her took away the pain. That was a helpful thing at least. She couldn't help but think that Jack was being rather nice to her if he truly was the Joker.

She reached up to grip onto the hand that was caressing her face. His hand was rough and huge compared to hers, but she could bring herself to care. It felt nice just being around someone who wasn't trying to violate her at that moment. That sounded even more sad then she thought it would and she could here Jack laugh above her which meant she probably had said that out loud. Great, just another thing to be embarrassed about.

Jack leaned down and whispered into her ear a sweet and rough goodnight, before placing a kiss to the top her head. Her eyes closed, finally at peace. Her heart stopped beating.


	4. Jack 1

**Author's Note: So, this didn't' end up being the last chapter, but oh well. I'm going to name the chapters so that you can clearly see which part is Alice and which is the Joker. I know that Alice died last chapter, but I wanted to swing around and do the Joker's (or Jack's) perspective from the whole story. Let's hope for the best going into this! Feel free to leave me a review if you have the time and I really hoped you enjoyed reading my story.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything but Alice and the story itself.**

It all started one fine evening when he wanted to go out for a stroll. Which of course meant putting on his war paint and best shoes, so that he may look presentable to the world. This was definitely a slum kind of place in Gotham, where people would beat each other to death in public, just because they felt like it. The kind of place that had a stripper clubs on every corner, one that didn't even try to enforce that no touch rule. The kind of place that made him feel right at home, he grinned as people back out of his way and even had the pleasure of a laugh as one person accidently back out of way into the street and into a car that didn't even have the chance to begin to hit the brakes. He decided that he should go on walks more often, because this was kind of fun, and that had been just plain funny.

People were funny in general at most times, staring at him with wide eyes and doing whatever they could to get out of his way. If loved to see them kill themselves just to get away from him, it was just so funny. How was that any less bad then whatever he could do to them? Was it not the same thing, because those people certainly didn't think so? And they thought he was a weirdo, what kind of person killed themselves because a guy was strolling down the street at them? Crazy, suicidal people who were just looking for an almost reason to up and off themselves, like they would have done it whether he was there or not. Jeeze, didn't that make him feel just so damn special.

Soon enough though, he had had enough with people staring at him and retreated to the shadows of an alley. Even in the dark back alley, bad things were happening. Two men were beating the head in a young woman. Her hair which was probably supposed to be blond was dripping with red, with blood. The woman was even trying to fight back as they shoved her to the ground and started undoing their pants, he could help but frown, he liked it a lot better when they fought back. It was so boring if they didn't fight back. Her shirt had been fully ripped off and he took in the view of her chest, it was also bloody and he could help but notice one of her rips poking out at a jagged angle. Her head turned over to seemingly look at him, though he knew it was much too dark where he was standing for her to see.

He didn't even notice knives left his hands before the two men were dead. Walking out of the shadows frowning, he went and stood in front of the broken girl. That had been stupid of him to kill them, he just stopped the show and now he was bored, with only a broken doll to entertain himself with. He grinned at that, she did look exactly like a broken china doll. Leaning forward, he rested his palm in her cheek, her face was very warm. "Ah, dolly, ya lookin a little bit broken. Need so-ome help?" He said still grinning, maybe this could be a little entertaining after all. He smacked his lips together when she didn't really have a reaction, he was tempted to shake her and see if she would scream then.

The girl pushed his hand away and throw up. He grimaced and back away with his nose upturned. That was disgusting and practically as bad as when one of his victims peed themselves from fear. Then the girl had the balls to turn and lean away from him, and sucked on his stitches in anger, "Da-olly, don't ig-nore me." It came out more of a giggle than anything else, but counted it a win all the same because she looked up at his face. "I 'ike your eyes." Was all he got out of the girl and it caused him to lose his smile. This girl didn't appear to be scared of him at all and that was just so dull.

As she slumped backwards into the wall he looked around the alley, it was dark out and cold already. It was going to snow later in the evening and this girl was going to just freeze and die in her sleep if left alone. He ended up pulling out his phone and calling the stupid people that he called his underlings. He couldn't have this girl die peacefully in her sleep; that was no fun. Besides he really wanted to play with this Dolly some more, and looking down at her ripped off shirt he noted that they could probably play dress up to. She would look better in his purple and green colors anyway.

He picked her up and took noticed of just how light she was. He wondered just what kind of life she had lived before this. Not a very good one he was willing to bet. The henchmen ended up showing up 10 minutes later then he wanted and then ended up _tragically dying._ So, he suddenly was in the mood to talk to her again and ended up driving her to his current hide out house. He hated driving, so that certainly didn't improve his mood, and neither did cleaning the blood off her once they got to the house. He left for the night with anger gripping at his mind.


	5. Jack 2

**Author's Note: Ever been tired in class, but the teacher just won't stop talking? Yeah, I starting to experience a lot of afternoon's like that. Maybe I should try and get more sleep at night. Not going to happen this weekend, there a wedding I have to get to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and would be very happy if you left me a review! Turned out creepier then I intended, but oh well I guess.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Joker or anything else in the Dark Knight fandom. Though Alice is my character.**

It had been a whole 24 hours since he had brought his first girl home with him and she was still sleeping. Boring, that's what this whole situation was. She hadn't even made a noise when he touched her chest, and she hadn't had any clothes over it. He had wanted her to speak or squeal, or move away, or something. Still, she didn't make any movement at all, there was no reaction to absolutely anything he did, and she just slept on. Irritated by her lack of anything, he had taken to checking in on her every hour, on the hour. That way he would possibly miss when she was awake.

And then it finally happened, he noticed her eyes open from outside the room and just about danced into the room. He didn't even care that he didn't have his paint on at the moment, it didn't really matter anyway, this Dolly was his now, so who cared if she saw him unmade. He smiled at that thought, what a nice thing to think; this girl was his now, he rescued her, his life was his to play with and to take if he so choose.

He found himself stepping closer to her as he spoke, "It's good to see you awake Deary, you were asleep for days and we were starting to think that maybe ya weren't going to wake up." He wasn't expecting an answer but got one anyway, "I wasn't really expecting to wake up either. And certainly not in such a comfortable room, I thought it would be in a cold alley, half covered in snow."

He frowned at that, and wondered just what kind of horrible life she had lived, to have scars that deep. He stepped forward so that he could rub his hand down the side of her face. She didn't flinch at all at his bold movement, and didn't look scared in the least. That had certainly never happened before; everyone in the world was scared of him! "Ya sure don't think much of your own life Deary. Ya got a name that I can write on that headstone?" He murmured it out more for his own humor and was a bit shocked when she just quickly answered him again, "You can call me Alice if you want, but if it's all the same I would rather you didn't bother with the head stone. Expensive and pointless, just throw my body wherever you see fit. If you people have dog's perhaps you could just feed me to them, they probably don't get fed another in a place like this anyway."

He straight out frowned at her, what was he supposed to do to someone who didn't care or not if they lived or died? And just who the hell said just feed their dead body to the dogs, which was absolutely morbid and made even his skin crawl. This girl who called herself Alice seemed to be broken all of, head included. The Joker quickly decided he could get used to talking to a girl like her. "Call me Jack. And don't give up yet Deary, I think you'll see things are going to be looking up for you. Now, I think you should come to the kitchen and get something to eat. I ah, made soup for you yesterday."

He hadn't really made soup, but he just wanted to see if she would smile at him if he said something nice. She didn't so he considered it a failure, but still looked over to see her trying to get off the bed. Well, he wasn't the only failure because when she tried to stand up, her legs buckled right away and she plummeted toward the ground. Being the nice guy hat he was, he grab towards her and stopped her from hitting the ground. He noted how cold she still was when he pressed her into his chest. And she had let out a squeak when he had grabbed her that made his day.

That meant that she was still afraid of him, and with a wicked grin, he lifted her back on the bed, where he ran his hands up and down her body. He just wanted her to squeak again, or to cry out, not act like this strangely calm creature before him. He noted her red face, but she didn't make another sound. "Wha-ah, what's the matter Deary?" He wanted her to cry.

"Maybe it's my turn to stop anyway. Looks like you wasted your time; should have just left me in that alley." She managed to groan out. The joker found himself frowning; this girl was so sad, so stupid, and so ready to give up on her life. Not that she was likely to survive, her injuries were terrible, but people never liked to give up in situations like this; call him an expert. His hand made its way to her face again and her eyes wondered closed.

He pulled the needle out of his pocket and all but jumped on top of her, it had a harsh drug in it that would kill her. She was suffering like this, and would no doubt for several more days. She would be dead within minutes like this. Her eyes snapped open like she was possessed when the needle went in and when he climbed back off she just limply looked at him. He found his hand stroking down her face again, she looked so blank and uncaring. And then she grinned at him. At that moment he decided that she was beautiful. He laughed when she gripped at his hand and gave him a squeeze because he wasn't sure what else he could do.

The Joker leaned down and whispered into her ear a sweet and rough goodnight, before placing a kiss to the top her head. Her eyes closed, finally at peace. Her heart stopped beating. He drew himself away from her and stared. He ran a hand through his hair, she said she had wanted to be fed to the dogs, but for some reason he wanted to bury her. Like she deserved that peace. He didn't even have any dogs anyway.

He frowned; maybe he should just give himself a little time to think about it. Like a few days or something. He gave her one more kiss, and then pulled the blanket up over her body, covering all but her head. It looked like she was just sleeping now. And then he left the room, turning off the light and closing the door quietly as he went. Being this caring was fun for awhile, and maybe after he was finished playing with this doll, he would find another to replace her. You're not allowed to judge, he had a type, alright?


End file.
